Badal jumps into SGPC battlefield: Goes all out to protest against formation of a separate gurdwara body in Haryana

At the advanced age of 84, Parkash Singh Badal prepares to fight the second most important battle involving the control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) in his decades-long political career.

After Operation Bluestar in 1984 when he was jailed, the grand old man of Punjab politics is preparing to fight the contentious issue of a separate Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (HSGPC).

Police stop Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal activists during a protest outside AICC in New Delhi on Friday

The demand for a separate Sikh body has put the SGPC in crisis and threatened the dominance of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in the Committee.

The passage of the HSGPC Bill in the Haryana Assembly has left the Punjab chief minister shattered as it puts a question mark on his control over SGPC and Sikh politics.

A distraught Badal had threatened to resign and pull down the SAD-BJP coalition government over the issue. The NDA government tried to help its troubled ally by sending a letter to the Haryana governor for withdrawing the assent.

Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal activists during a protest outside AICC in New Delhi on Friday

Later, Badal skipped the Budget session in the Punjab Assembly for three days. Instead, he was seen meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

The Akali Dal had called an emergency meeting on July 15. Badal was expected to resign in the meeting, but nothing of that sort happened.

A world Sikh convention in Amritsar on July 27 was announced in the meeting.

Badal is likely to tender his resignation in Amritsar. That the HSGPC issue is so important for the Akali Dal can also be understood from the fact that the SGPC will lose donations worth nearly Rs 175 crore from Haryana.

And if the move is successful, other states like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand are likely to opt for separate Sikh bodies. It means the Akali Dal will also lose sway over the SGPC in the elections.

Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal (C) is likely to resign from his post on July 27 to make way for his son Sukhbir (L)

The Akali Dal and the SGPC may have failed to stop Haryana from enacting HSGPC Bill, but they have successfully created an environment for a showdown. Heavily armed SGPC and Akali Dal activists have already entered Haryana's gurdwaras to prevent others from taking over the shrines.

"The sangat (gathering of Sikhs) on July 27 will give its final nod for the 'morcha' to be launched to correct the historic wrong committed by the Haryana government. I appeal to the Gandhi family and also warn it that both Nature and God have always punished those who have gone against the Akal Takht," Badal said on Tuedsay.

Interestingly, the crisis has also provided twin opportunities to Badal. The chief minister plans to exploit the situation by steering the Sikh religious sentiments and also pave the way for a smooth transition of power for his son Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The junior Badal is eyeing the chief minister's chair since 2012 when the Akali Dal had won the Punjab Assembly elections under his guidance. The opposition Congress has criticised Badal for exploiting the separate Sikh body issue to reap political and personal gains. Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa claimed the chief minister was trying to divert the attention of the common public as he has failed to match the public's expectation from him.

"Badal has always used Sikh politics to further interests of his own and that of his family through such agitations," the PCC chief alleged.

Criticism rains down on Badal

Senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh has attacked Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for dragging religion into the tussle over a separate management body for gurdwaras in Haryana. The Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikh religion, does not belong to the Akali Dal alone, Amarinder said.

"The very statement of Makkar (SGPC chief) suggesting that Akal Takht could summon Congress leaders for supporting Haryana SGPC only reinforced the belief about the interference into the working of the highest temporal institution of the Sikhs by Badal through his handpicked men like Makkar," he said.

The Bangla Sahib gurdwara in New Delhi

Amarinder said the demand for a separate SGPC was a political issue. "Hence, it was wrong to drag Akal Takht into the whole issue. The way the Badals and Makkar are behaving only shows that they are trying to misuse the highest temporal authority for their personal and partisan interests," he claimed.

The deputy leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha remarked that there were already separate committees for managing the gurdwara affairs of Patna Saheb and Hazur Sahib. "Then why should the same rights be denied to the Sikhs in Haryana?" he asked.

Amarinder also advised Makkar to think instead of blindly following the Badals. The former Punjab chief minister also attacked the Centre for sending a letter to the Haryana governor to withdraw his assent to the HSGPC Bill.

"You don't order a Governor, who is the constitutional head of a state, to withdraw his assent to a law passed by the state legislature.

"The Union Home Ministry appears to have breached its brief apparently to mollycoddle the Punjab chief minister, who has made it a point of prestige not to allow setting up of a separate Sikh body for Haryana," Amarinder said.